Engine won't restart - first time this happened

[HippoBoatamus]

So I am pulling my son and he goes down. Then all this happens. I am new to Inboards, so please someone tell me, flooding, stupid driver, what?

1. Go to Netural like normal,turn wheel, put in fwd gear to idle around - everything good here.
2. I notice the boat behind me is not paying enough attn. I am in a spot with a boat behind and a boat beside me. NOW I see that I need to get back to protect my rider, and fast.

From idle fwd, I go to Neu (barely), slam into Rev with some juice. This swings me around fast. I then Go from Rev to Fwd (I probably skipped neutral here), and boat dies.

I turn key to off position, check to make sure in Neu, etc etc, nothing when I try to crank. No starter noise, nothing other than the buzzing noise from when you turn the key on until you start the motor. Wife is overboard swimming to son, I am on back deck with huge AIR HORN. Driver behind responds, and was acutally kind enough to sit in front of my wife and kid to block them from other boats, and just pulled their tubers in by the rope. By all means - Thanks to this man!

For the next few minutes I check everything...

1. battery connections, good to go.
2. quadruple check stick is in netural, it's there.
3. I pull key out of ignition, replace, starts right up.
I was maybe .7 hours short of Full. We had gotten gas and ice at the marina just before.

Maybe an hour later, boarder goes down, I take my time.

1. Go to Neu, turn to right, put in idle go to Left to start turn - everything good.
2. Boat on my left, I put in Rev to stay closer to my original line, boat backs up.
3. I go from Rev to Neu to Fwd and boat starts to stall, I give it more gas, and it picks up and runs.

Put up about an hour later with no issues. I have put 22 hours on this boat since I bought it, never any acceleration problems, no problems staying running, etc.

[mtnsmith]

What engine do you have, how many total hours on the boat? With the first scenario it sounds like the safety kill lanyard switch or neutral safety switch since you said it was not cranking. The starter could have a loose connection or be going bad I guess, but I wouldn't think it would have restarted.

[HippoBoatamus]

I have a 340HP MP motor by GM.
146 hours when purchased 3 weeks ago, 168 hours now. Serviced at 145 hours. The dealer I purchased it from was the original seller when new, and showed me all the maintenance records.

When I checked the throttle for neu, I also pulled and reconnected the lanyard kill switch, and it did not crank. The neutral safety switch you refer to, is that the throttle being in neu, or is it something else?

I am also looking to understand maybe why it died in the first place? Could that be from jumping from gear to gear so quickly? Once I realized I needed to be moving quickly, I was going from high rpm in one gear, to high rpm in the other.

[da.bell]

You should not be going forward and then slam it into reverse immediately. If the boat speed is < 5 mph, then the reverse will be okay. Honestly, I think the boat was thinking that you hit something with the prop so it shut down. Remember, you are still going forward at a good amount of speed and tossing the throttle into reverse puts a lot more strain on the engine the faster you go.

[dogbert]

You should not be going forward and then slam it into reverse immediately. If the boat speed is < 5 mph, then the reverse will be okay. Honestly, I think the boat was thinking that you hit something with the prop so it shut down. Remember, you are still going forward at a good amount of speed and tossing the throttle into reverse puts a lot more strain on the engine the faster you go.

I would agree. I think you may have jammed up the throttle in some way. I'd wiggle it a bit and see if you can get it to go again.

One thing you need to learn is don't panic...easy does it every time. When going from forward to reverse, always stop in neutral and then shift. The extra split second isn't going to hurt you.

As for the situation you were in, you need to get your crew to help you. Your wife should have been on the air horn getting the other guy's attention, not you. You need to communicate to her what you're doing so she knows what to do.

On my boat, the captain rules, no matter who's driving. Everyone else is at their command. I have no problems telling an unruly passenger to sit down and shut up. I explain that up front, especially to my friends who are in constant motion all the time (and they can create problems on the boat).

[R&T Babich]

... The neutral safety switch you refer to, is that the throttle being in neutral, or is it something else?...

The neutral safety switch is screwed into the side of the trans.
On the opposite side of the trans is the cable linkage to the shifter.
There is a common shaft between them.
The linkage clamp can work loose.

[HippoBoatamus]

Wow, like normal, lots of good information here. I have something to check, and alot more to think about to avoid/improve a simliar situation in the future. Thank you for the knowledge, suggestions, and LOL, not reaming on the new guy!

[Vosinek]

Do you know the part # for this switch? I think mine is bad as well. We bipassed it for now and it works fine so I think this is it.

[TigeTrojan]

This has happened to me in the past. Always a similar situation when a skier goes down and i try to get back to them too fast. Mine always starts right back up though, so I just don't worry about it. Glad you brought it up though. I'm going to check mine too.

[boatwakes]

Do all you guys use reverse to make your turns? Just curious, but why don't you swing it around at speed in a tight circle? I've seen other drivers do it and often times can hear the "clunk" going into reverse from our boat and realize why we've had to replace so many drive plates and transmissions.

[TigeTrojan]

I don't use reverse. Normally, I will just pull back to N when the skier goes down, wait until the boat comes to almost a complete stop, turn it around at idle, then speed back to the skier. Reason for not making a turn at speed is it sends wake right down the lake and into the path that I'll be on once we get the skier back up, and it sends wake back toward the skier.

If it's busy or my skier might be hurt, I'll do a full power turn and get back as soon as possible.

My engine will stall out when I go from full speed to a stop just by putting it in N. Like I said, I didn't really think too much of it until now as it doesn't happen every time, maybe 2-3 times during the day.